This Food Is Good!

You will thank me for this one.


There are a lot of great options out there for when you are craving a certain taste but don't want the meat, however... Italian beef sandwiches were one thing that I had figured just weren't going to happen. I didn't crave the meat part - just the juicy, spicy, well-seasoned bread that came with it. I haven't cooked with seitan much, but I've always enjoyed it at restaurants and prefer it to tofu. Then I discovered this recipe, and adjusted it to my liking.

This is what you need to gather:
1 and 1/2 lbs. of thinly sliced seitan
3-4 c. water
3 vegetable bouillon cubes
2 t. dried oregano
3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
2 t. fennel seeds
1 t. salt
1/2 t. ground black pepper
2 chopped up red bell peppers

Put everything in a pot, stir it, cover it, and simmer over medium heat for about an hour. After an hour, turn the heat to low and keep it covered until you are ready to serve it.

Serve with rolls. I got 5 for $1 at the Vietnamese bakery across the street and they were amazing. They were served in a bowl, sliced, filled with the seitan and then I poured the juice over them. Perfect!

You now know that I have a refrigerator full of cut up veggies. You also know that I try to use these in as many different ways as I can until they get used up. Now let me introduce you to "Veggie BLT's... in miniature".

Several months back I was craving a BLT, so I went to Trader Joe's, got some Smoked Tofurky slices, some Morningstar Fake Bacon (yes, please call it Fakin'... you are very clever), and make a killer veggie BLT on toasted sliced bread. But tonight... I made them mini... and according to the bf they were way better this way. I agree.

Mini Veggie BLT's

12 pack of small King's Hawaiian rolls
Several Red Lettuce leaves
1 Tomato, sliced
Handful of Alfalfa sprouts
1/2 Onion, diced
1 slice of Smoked Tofurky for every roll you plan on making
1/2 strip of Morningstar Bacon, again per roll
Earth Balance "butter"

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. While it is preheating, toss the bacon on a skillet. I heat it on one side until it is soft, then flip it and just as it starts to sizzle, turn off the stove. The heat in the pan will cook it the rest of the way and it will be crispy but not overcooked. That stuff tastes great when done right, but is not so wonderful when it's hard and burnt.

Once the bacon is cooling, toss the rolls in the oven. Spend the next few minutes putting everything you need out, this way the veggies are still cold when you eat them. After about three minutes, the rolls will be ready.


Arrange them however you like; this is the order I stack stuff in:
Bottom of roll, lettuce, tomato, alfalfa, onion, bacon, turkey, earth balance, top of roll.

This way, the tomato won't soak into your "meats" and leave them soggy, the onion won't fall out of the roll because it is stuck in the alfalfa, the turkey keeps the bacon and butter from merging, so you notice two really distinct tastes. Am I kind of micromanaging my food? Yes. But I really enjoy how each thing tastes, and this way I get to do just that.